The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Kyrylo Sozin of Toronto had to be thinking that as he walked out onto the Canada Winter Games judo mat to face Kevin Gauthier in Saturday's gold medal team competition against Quebec .
Sozin, who won gold Thursday in individual under-100 kilogram class, was fighting up a weight class against Gauthier, the over-100 kg champion. At 127 kg, Gauthier outweighed Sozin by 26 kg.
That's intimidating in a sport decided by throws, flips, pins and submission holds. Size does matter.
But in less than a minute's work, the 18-year-old Sozin got Gauthier on his back to earn a wazari and he held Gauthier down long enough for the pin to give Team Ontario its fourth win of the five-match team event.
"I'm used to fighting guys in my weight class and I was scared a little bit," said Sozin, who immigrated to Canada from Ukraine four years ago. "He was taller than me, so when he grabbed me I felt like a kid against him. I was dancing around him and I just hooked my leg and he went down.'
The El Nahas brothers of Toronto - 18-year-old Mohab and 16-year-old Shady - took some of the pressure off Sozin when they each won their matches to give Ontario a 3-1 edge. Mohab tossed Maxime Cote to the floor with an osoto-gori flip for an ippon, while Shady had total control over Olivier Gobeil-St. Amand of Champlain, Que.,and forced him into four penalties and an automatic disqualification.
"We were all pumped for this tournament, especially for the team event, because some of us lost on the first day and we really wanted to leave with gold medals and we succeeded today," said Mohab, who won individual gold in the under-81 kg class. "I fought (Gobeil-St. Amand) in my semifinal and Shady did way better against him than I did. I wasn't expecting that from him."
Shady, the under-91 kg individual champion, drew on his brother's experience to gain the upper hand on Gobeil-St. Amand.
"My brother just told me what to do, how to grip, how to attack - because he's a pretty strong guy and I tried to throw him at first but the easier and smarter way was to penalty him up and disqualify him for not attacking."
In the other gold team results, Ontario's Bradley Lanois held down Alex Marineau to win the under-73 kg bout, while Gabriel Juteau of Quebec won by penalties over Ontario's Yassin Youssef. Ontario outpointed Quebec 40-1.
Team B.C. (Leo Goldberg (Abbotsford), Ario Nishimura (Steveston), Daniel Henry (Campbell River, Clark Braxton (Nanaimo) and Tavis Jamieson (Ladner), won the bronze event over Manitoba.
"That was real exciting, it came down to the last match, tied two wins apiece and Tavis Jamieson got a big win against (Martin Russo), a guy he lost to in the semifinals in the individual competition," said B.C. head coach Bruce Kamstra of Prince George.
In the women's team event, Quebec (Yumi Amal Bellali, Camelia Pitsilis, Marie-Maude Lafrance, Adriana Portuondo Isasi and Ana Laura Portuondo Isasi) defeated Alberta 4-1 (37-10) for the gold medal, while Ontario defeated B.C. 3-2 (30-20) for bronze.
Lavanna Laass of Prince George, the under-63 silver medalist who helped B.C. defeat Prince Edward Island and Manitoba in the early rounds, won in walkover in the bronze team event when Ontario's Ira Fusch moved up to the under-70 kg weight class. Fusch beat Kristen Yawney of Prince George by ippon. Yawney had expected to have walkover and was surprised when she learned she had to fight Fusch.
"We got outsmarted against Ontario, we needed to get one win so they moved (Fusch) up so she wouldn't have to fight Lavanna," said Kamstra. "I think they were counting on Kristen not being prepared to fight and she was not prepared, and that's partly our fault as coaches."
Yawney won her fight in the preliminaries against Kamryn Shea of P.E.I. and Laass defeated Lafrance of Quebec. The other Prince George judoka, Grace Northrop of the Hart Judo Academy, lost all three of her matches, including a loss to Bellali of Quebec, the under-52 kg champion.
"I was actually really happy with my performance today," said Northrop. "Bellali is the best in Canada. I lasted a minute 20 seconds today and previously I lasted only 14 seconds. This is a a big improvement for me. The gripping practice we had (Friday) was helpful."
B.C. ended he week with eight judo medals, four silver and four bronze.
